Satan falling from heaven, as depicted by Gustave Doré in an illustration for John Milton's "Paradise Lost".

In his first homily, given on March 14th, Pope Francis cautioned the faithful that “he who does not pray to the Lord, prays to the devil.” “When we do not profess Jesus Christ,” he further insisted, “we profess the worldliness of the devil, a demonic worldliness.” Since
that day, he has spoken often of the one he has called the “prince of
this world,” and the “father of lies.” And, in the book, On Heaven and Earth,
then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio devoted an entire chapter to “The
Devil”, warning that Satan’s fruits are “destruction, division, hatred
and calumny.”

For many Catholicsespecially post-Vatican II
Catholicsspeaking aloud of evil, sin, and Satan is something they may
never have experienced, even in Church. Some may have to resort to the
internet (or dictionary) to look up a definition of calumny. It seems
that after a long hiatus, evil and sin have been “rediscovered” by some.

More
than sixty years ago, T. S. Eliot wrote about the sense of alienation
that occurs when social regulators begin to splinter and the controlling
moral authority of a society is no longer effective. He suggested that a
“sense of sin” was beginning to disappear. In his play, The Cocktail Party,
a troubled young protagonist visits a psychiatrist and confides that
she feels “sinful” because of her relationship with a married man. She
is distressed not so much by the illicit relationship, but rather, by
the strange sense of sin. Eliot writes, “Having a sense of sin seems
abnormal” to hershe had never noticed before that such behavior might
be seen in those terms. She believed that she had become “ill.”

Writing
in 1950, Eliot knew that the language of sin was declining even then,
yet most of us would assume that the concept of sin was still strong.
Looking back though, it seems that for many, the sense of sin was
already beginning to be replaced by an emerging therapeutic culture.
Within that growing culture of “liberation”, people no longer viewed
themselves as sinful when they drank too much, took drugs, or engaged in
violent or abusive behaviors. Rather, such actions were increasingly
viewed as indicators that such individuals were victims of an illness
they had little or no control over.

Promoted by the psychological
community and popularized by practitioners like Carl Rogers, the
therapeutic mentality began seeping into the Church as psychologists
began advising Catholic dioceses about implementing the therapeutic
culture within the Church itself. Seminarians were instructed to move
away from making judgments about others, and instead, use the language
of illness and therapy. Suicide was no longer a sin that deprived the
victim of Christian burial, rather, it was evidence of sickness. Drug
and alcohol abuse were no longer character flaws or the result of
choices, rather they were evidence of a defective gene pool that
“forced” the victim into the illness of substance abuse.

Sociologistswho
understand better than most how deviant behavior becomes defined and
re-definedbegan paying attention to the culture shift. Sociologist
Philip Rieff, an expert on the thought of Freud, warned in his
now-classic book, The Triumph of the Therapeutic that
“psychological man” was beginning to replace “Christian man” as the
dominant character type in our society. Unlike traditional Christianity,
which made moral demands on believers, the secular world of
“psychological man” rejected both the idea of sin and the need for
salvation.” Speaking of a “sense of sin”, an “occasion of sin”, or
sinfulness itself was no longer allowed.

Perhaps this is why it is
so unusual to experience the revival of the language of sin now that
Pope Francis actually speaks of “real” sinsnot just metaphorical ones.
Speaking of specific sinssins like calumnythat we may have learned
about long ago, but have forgotten about, Pope Francis has begun the
process of chipping away at the therapeutic culture in the Church and
beyond. And as he reminds us of sin, he reminds us that there is
evilreal evilin the world and in our lives, with a real entity called
Satan as the source of this evil.

Indeed, it is Pope Francis’s
references to Satan that are so striking, especially since so few public
figures speak of Satan. And, whenever anyone dares speaks openly of
Satan, “enlightened” people are scandalized. Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia found that out last October when he was interviewed by a skeptical reporter for New York Magazine. Justice
Scalia casually responded to a question about his legacy in a way that
appeared to startle the interviewer. Claiming that he has “never been
custodian of my legacy,” Justice Scalia said “When I’m dead and gone,
I’ll either be sublimely happy or terribly unhappy.”

The New York Magazine
reporter was incredulousasking him: “You believe in heaven and hell?”
And, Justice Scalia responded “Of course I do.” The reporter said she
didn’t.

Justice Scalia then astonished the bewildered reporter
even more by leaning in, and whispering, “I even believe in the
Devil…Yeah, he’s a real person. Hey, c’mon, that’s standard Catholic
doctrine. Every Catholic believes that.” She could hardly believe
itresponding that “Every Catholic believes this? There’s a wide variety
of Catholics out there.”

It is true, sadly, that there are indeed
a number of Catholics who have never been taught that the Devil is
“real”. It is just unbelievable to them. But when Pope Francis said Mass
in the Vatican’s St. Martha guesthouse last October and warned the
faithful, “We must always be on guard against deceit, against the
seduction of evil,” he meant a real evil presented by a real demon. For
Pope Francis, “there is a battle, and a battle where salvation is at
play, eternal salvation.” He has also said, “The presence of the devil
is on the first page of the Bible, and the Bible ends as well with the
presence of the devil, with the victory of God over the devil.”

So
many Catholics seem to have forgotten that, and we should be grateful
to Pope Francis for the reminder. Some of us may not even know what is
on the first page of the Bible because we have not read it. Many of our
Evangelical sisters and brothers have never forgotten it. As Russell
Moore, President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the
Southern Baptist Convention, recently wrote on the pages of First Things,
“Evangelicals are a narrative driven people…The centrality of the
Gospel demands a certain form of public engagement. The Gospel, after
all is the announcement of God’s redemption of sinners through the life,
death, resurrection, and ongoing reign of Jesus Christ.”

Catholics
need to re-learn that languageand Pope Francis, building on the work
of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, is teaching us to go back to the Bible
to see as Russell Moore reminds us, “the universe is shaped around the
Gospel of Jesus Christ and that losing our living sense of the ultimate telos leads to an unsustainable teleology.” Perhaps we all just needed to reminded that Satan is real.

Religious
writers have often called Satan an “evil genius” because of his ability
to hide in plain sight and tempt us in subtle ways. C. S. Lewis offers a
compelling description of the way in which the “Father of Lies”
cunningly tries to convince us to turn away from God. In his satirical Screwtape Letters,
Lewis creates a senior demon named Screwtape who is instructing
Wormwood, his young protégé on how best to capture a soul for hell. When
Wormwood wants to tempt the target to commit great evil for great
profit, Screwtape advises his young demon-in-training that it is not
necessary to get the target to commit the “big sins.” Rather, as
Screwtape says in Letter XII, “the safest road to hell is the gradual
one, the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without
milestones, without signposts.”

Pope Francis is warning us of
these gentle slopes without signposts. Cautioning us about the “small”
temptationsthe greedy reach, the neglect of the poor, the dangers of
gossip, or pride. Francis has already spoken many times in just a few
months of the temptations of Satan and the reality of evil. But, that is
not enoughCatholics need to begin to believe that the devil is real
and active. In Letter VII, Screwtape tells his young protégé that the
most effective thing he can do to bring souls to hell is to convince
people that Satan does not even exist: “The fact that “devils” are
predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If
any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind,
suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him
that since he cannot believe in that, he therefore cannot believe in
you.”

Pope Francis refuses to allow this deception to continueand this is why he is so very important for our Church.

About the Author

Anne Hendershott

Anne Hendershott is professor of sociology and Director of the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life at Franciscan University of Steubenville, She is the co-author of Renewal: How a New Generation of Priests and Bishops are Revitalizing the Church (Encounter Books).

Write a comment

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative and inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.